Featured Photo Credit: UN Women/Yijiu Yuan by Charlie Estes, Intern for The Hunger Project March 8, 2021 -- International Women’s Day is a time to take stock of where we are in our global journey toward gender equality and look forward to what’s to come. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Report, … Continue reading International Women’s Day 2021: Getting Back on Track
Thirteenth in the series for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. Photo: NASA December 7, 1972 - On the last Apollo mission to the moon, astronauts took a photo now known as the “Blue Marble” photo - very likely the most reproduced photo in history - the first ever “whole earth” photo. As a … Continue reading Women Saving the Earth
Fourteenth in my series for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. Photo - public domain - of the painting by Francisco Rizi. December 8 is observed by some Christians as the “Feast of the Immaculate Conception” and honors Mary, the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Mary plays a major role in both the Christian … Continue reading Is God a Feminist?
Twelfth in a series for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. Photo by by ZhengZhou of the sculpture "Non-Violence" by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, in front of UN headquarters at New York City. December 6, 1989 was the Montreal massacre - a mass shooting at the École Polytechnique specifically targeting feminists. Since then, December 6 has become a … Continue reading Guns make gender-based violence deadly.
Ninth in a series for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. Photo: The Hunger Project-Bangladesh December 3 is the International Day for People with Disabilities. According to the Minnesota website DisabilityJustice.org, “People with disabilities are sexually assaulted at nearly three times the rate of people without disabilities.” The site reports that 83% of women … Continue reading Halting Sexual Abuse of People with Disabilities
Part 8 for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. Photo: iStock.com/Favor of God December 2, 2018 is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. Modern-day slavery is appallingly widespread. According to the UN more than 40 million people are in forced labor, including 4.8 million in forced sexual exploitation. Women and girls are … Continue reading Community Action to End Modern Slavery
Part 7 for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence December 1, 2018 - World AIDS Day: In the 1980s, the first cases of AIDS were a shock to everyone. It took months for top researchers to understand it. In Africa, where the pandemic became most widespread, the campaign to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS … Continue reading HIV/AIDS is Gender-based Violence
Sixth in a series for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. Photo: UN Peace Keeping. Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, leader of the Dahomey women's regiment, drawn by Frederick Forbes, 1851 - Public Domain. Today, November 30, is Benin National Day. What does that have to do with Women, Peace and Security? Well - Benin’s history features the … Continue reading Women on the Front Lines of Peace and Security
Fifth in a series for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence I am always deeply inspired by each of the heroic women and men who have served as United Nations High Commissioners for Human Rights. The High Commissioner’s “To Do” list is horrific, dealing personally and skillfully with one brutal situation after another. (Many … Continue reading Women Human Rights Defenders
Third in a series for 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence. Photo: The Hunger Project - women's march at the Bissiga epicenter. There is a heartbreaking scene in Christy Turlington’s documentary No Woman, No Cry (2010) as a rural woman walks 12 miles to a birthing center, and is then turned away because she … Continue reading Denying Health Care is Violence